It was an ordinary Wednesday afternoon; when the sun beamed ceaselessly onto the ground, the whole campus was drenched in a cozy, serene atmosphere. A long line of people gathered in front of a temporarily raised pavilion, each holding a piece of paper in the palm of their hands. Murmuring, they kept waiting outside.
The crowded people were here for the opportunity to record their renditions of short pieces in that pavilion. Some of them took clips from romantic poems, some of them copied down a few lines from classic literature. The same scene could be found in the glowing studio of China Central Television, where all this craze and mania originally began. “The Reader”—a culture-related program, taking the nation back to a time when we were reading to collect the simplest pleasures, when the book could bring us the greatest satisfaction.
The reading craze
Launched two months ago, “The Reader” became popular soon after being on air. In every episode the program invites several guests, ranging from all ages and all walks of life, to share their life stories and unforgettable moments through a piece of writing. As readers gradually reveal themselves through the power of words, the audience resonates, evoking vivid and indelible memories, and starts to ponder: Nowadays, our society is growing by leaps and bounds. With the rapid development of electronic equipment, people seem to be swallowed by the high-tech world and seldom go out to enjoy the peace of mind. “The Reader” calls for every single individual to revert back to the purest, simplest happiness gained from the ancestral treasure of reading, and it worked—the Reading Pavilion has entered lots of the college campuses and attracted thousands of citizens to record their own stories, creating a real craze for the interest of reading.
“We want it to be an inheritance in WHU”
The Reading Pavilion did not linger for long, but its spirit remained to influence a great number of students.
April 28th, “The Voice of Luojia”, a campus broadcasting station serving as one of the most powerful voices for students, held an activity called “WHU Reader”. “The success of “The Reader” and its Reading Pavilion reflects people’s longing to express one’s own emotions by speaking out loud,” said Li Hang, the leader of “The Voice of Luojia”. “Now the broadcast has become a very classic and precious way for students to acquire information. Therefore, we wish to provide our fully-equipped station as a platform, to open a gateway for the ones who are willing to verbalize themselves, as well as to send a message to the public: whenever you need a harbor to unleash yourself, there is always a station for you to stay. In the meantime, there is also a bunch of people who are sticking to the original pavilion platform, no matter how long a wait it takes.”
In Friday afternoon the recording room was officially opened, a stream of students came into the live scene, recording pieces of vocal clips that contained mixed connotations. Breathing, they turned on the microphone, letting the words unwind, echoing through the little booth loud and clear.
“Voice can be heard in this way.” said a student from WHU’s School of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Since their school’s broadcasting station has no professional recording lines and equipment, station members could only record content with cell phones and post them on the Internet piece by piece. When classes ended that day, four members of the station came all the way from the distant medical division, each recording a clip ranging from romantic poetry to inspiring prose. No related stories were told, nor were there any personal comments. They just came here to fulfill their promises, and to make the dreams that they had been dedicated to with ceaseless passion come true. After the recording, each reader received a special memento—their own recordings in the form of messages posted on the WeChat Official Account—for them to store forever and ever.
Behind the words
“How long has it been since the last time you sincerely expressed your feeling to others?” The prevailing question seems more thought-provoking than ever before in such a fast-paced society. In this new era of information, it cannot be more free and convenient for people to send a message that will travel across the globe with just a few clicks on the screen. Every day new cutting-edge technology emerges at an unimaginable speed, but so too is the pace of losing something precious and truly meaningful. Through the program of “The Reader”, people travelled back to a time when they used to actually communicate, interact and converse with this world—a time with great sincerity and solemn respect, which has been blurring in the fickle and indifferent contemporary social background. Like any great story, sooner or later this program, as well as the activity in WHU, may meet their end in the fleeting of time, yet the sentiment they have brought will never fade away. It will be inherited in various forms for the generations beyond.
Just as Li Hang says, the campus broadcasting station is always open for those who are truly in need.
（Edited by Fang Siyuan, Wu Siying, Edmund Wai Man Lai &Hu Sijia）
